Justin Welby has said he has forgiven the most prolific abuser associated with the Church of England.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury also admitted he held a “deep sense of personal failure” about the handling of allegations against the late John Smyth.

Mr Welby resigned as the most senior bishop in the Church of England in November, and officially left the role in January, after a report found he did not do enough to act on reports about Smyth.

The independent review, by Keith Makin, concluded Mr Welby did not adequately follow up on claims about the Christian camp leader and barrister.

It said Smyth might have been brought to justice had Mr Welby formally reported allegations to police in 2013.

Mr Welby initially refused to resign and remained in post for a further five days before announcing he would quit.

In his first interview since his resignation, he told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme that he should have stepped down sooner.

“What changed my mind was having been caught by the report being leaked and not really thought it through enough, to be honest,” he said.

“Over that weekend, as I read it and reread it and as I reflected on the horrible suffering of the survivors which had been, as many of them said, more than doubled by the institutional Church’s failure to respond adequately, it increasingly became clear to me that I needed to resign.”